Surfin the U-Curve

We talked a bit about U and W curves in the last class. These ideas are very important to young college students, so much so that the ideas are talked about in freshman orientation. I remember going through both during my freshman year. From my experiences the U-curve is truly a great predictor of how a person will react to a changed environment.

I'll likely be spending my next summer, fall and the following spring away from home. Within this time period is approximately one year in London. I've come to acknowledge that this time abroad will be like going back to that U-curve I experienced as a freshman. I'll be in a new land, separated by thousands of miles of water from anywhere I've ever seen. This time next year I should be hitting the low point in the U-curve.

Since this realization I've wondered how I can minimize the effects of the U-curve without making my life significantly worse in other aspects. I've realized that it's pretty much inescapable. The only ways I've seen to minimize the effects would be to ease the transition by spending the majority of my time with other Americans. This would negate many of the benefits of studying abroad, since the point of going over there is to learn a new culture. The other way would be to spend more time with people from that culture before leaving the country. The downside to that is the high time cost of finding the people, then befriending them and learning their culture.

So after much thought I've determined one thing: You just have to roll with the curve and acknowledge it exists. Surf it, know you're going to slide, get homesick, have a bad week. Since you know it's going to happen you can enjoy the highs of the beginning and end while understanding that the low is inevitable. Looks like that's t he only real way to beat the curve.